New HDD Trouble

[TheZecharon]

I've got a brand new HDD in it and I got a hold of a full version of Windows XP SP 2 and this is what it does, I've already partitioned it and now I need to install XP on it. After it does it's little partition, format or whatever it's called thing it tells me to take out any floppies and then it'll restart and install windows.

Well, when it restarts it does go into the GUI installation and it just brings me back to the Windows XP Home Edition Setup screen (blue screen where it gives you the option to set up windows repair or to quit) .

I've been sent the drivers for my HDD from my motherboard manufacturer and I've got them on a floppy and a press F6 when it tells me to and I go in there and put the correct drivers on but when I do that it doesn't pick up the HDD but it does when I don't use them. I also read on Microsoft's site that what my HDD is doing now is a symptom of it needing drivers.

My motherboard is a GA-K8NF-9 and it's made by Gigabyte if you memory needs to be refreshed. The HDD I have is a SeaGate 7200 RPM 200GB SATA HDD. I have a Antec Sonata case with a 380 watt PSU and a GeForce 6800 as my graphics card. My first boot device is my HDD and my second is my CD-ROM drive.

Ok, I figured I'd mention this too since it might have some relevance, see I called Gigabyte before and they told me my mobo was unstable because it wasn't booting reliably (having to get lucky in order to get into the BIOS) well one of the times I got lucky I check out the "Hard Disk Boot Priority" and it displayed my HDD and it was at 1, well I didn't replace my mobo but I got it to boot reliably and I didn't have to get lucky any more. What I did was I took it outta the case and I took the battery off of it for so long and then put it back on.

Well you now know everything I think is relevant so if you guys can help me out I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[mechBgon]

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/m...ATA_AGAIN_TEH_NOES.jpg

Ok, now that I got that out of the way... If Windows Setup was able to see the drive without using a driver floppy initially, then you don't need to mess with the F6 key / driver floppy thing. I suggest

1) if there are any other hard drives in the system, take them out for now

2) start Windows Setup again like you did, you're on the right track. Delete all of the existing partitions on the drive, press the F3 key twice to exit Windows Setup, and then start it a second time, create a partition, and let Windows Setup format it with the NTFS Quick approach.

3) when Windows Setup reaches that first reboot, take out the Windows CD-ROM so it can't run Windows Setup from CD again on you. See if this forces the motherboard to cope with the hard drive as a boot device. If it won't work, post what the error message says.

 

[joanneL2]

I recently had a similar problem with not one, but TWO Gigabyte motherboards for 64-bit AMD processors. They both went back to supplier and I built another Shuttle instead. I think there may be some problems with some recent Gigabyte mothers--formerly one of my favorite manufacturers, but no more.